Day 217...In the footsteps of Darwin.

Hola mis amigas/amigos, ¿Como esta?

Well its that time again, time for me to regale you all with what I have been up too since leaving the relative safety and comfort of Australia for the wild untamed dark continent of South America!

First impressions...not as dark and or scary as I was lead to believe, was almost expecting to just find lots of rainforest and small villages interpersed at regular intervals. Instead I got Quito. A magnificent old colonial town full of busy people, smog, dirt, crazy buses belching black smoke in your face and some of the most ornate and beautiful buildings I have ever seen, Quito at night is truly an awesome sight to behold. And not as dangerous as the guide books make out, well so my house mother said anyway...

Its amazing the sense of loneliness you can get in a town where you cant speak the language and everyone looks at you as you are pretty much the only stranger in town, really makes you appreciate the little acts of kindness, I will be the friendliest person to tourists when I back in England as I know how special it makes you feel not to be alone! But I am getting far too far ahead of myself!!

Flight from Sydney was uneventful if very long, stopped off in Auckland for an hour and watched the long rolling New Zealand clouds overhead, I realised at this point that my heart belongs there, its has been far and away the highlight of my trip (so far!!). Watch out New Zealand I will be back.

Back on the plane and the next 12 hours fly by as for the first time I have an in flight entertainment system and my own tv in the back of the chair in front. Play games, watch several films, get fed lots and decide to try to get deep vein thrombosis and a ruptured bladder by not moving from my seat once.

Glad to report that I was not afflicted by anything more major than a horrible dose of temporal displacement, the longhaul flight and crossing the international date line lead me to be so confused I wasn´t quite sure where, when and even had me doubting who I was. I was sure I would meet myself at some point in my missing hours. Do we leave a part of ourself behind every time we cross a time line and do we actually get older or younger, all these thoughts and more crossed my mind on the flight!

Arrived in Santiago and headed straight for a nice little area called Bellavista where there is a great little hostel with the same name (thanks for the tip Dee!). Stayed there, made some friends and was boardering on agorophobic during my stay. Everyones out to mug you that little voice would whisper in my ear, they are talking about you and you don´t know it, you're a Gringo and must be loaded, a prime target for all the muggers, as obviously everyone in South America is out to get you and take you for something...

Anyway kind of realised that maybe I was being a little over cautious and that learning Spanish might help to ease my worries somewhat, so three days later I arrive in Quito (Ecuador) at 10pm and am due to start an Extra intensive Spanish course the next day (In case you are wondering extra intensive is 60 hours of Spanish lessons over two weeks...ouch!). Suffice to say with that many lessons and staying with a non english speaking family in Old Towm my brain went into toxic shock and I had to slow down a LOT. Seems to have helped though, its amazing how much your brain takes in when it really has to. At this point I have to say a big thank you to Manuel, without your faith in my fledgling Spanish skills I would have given up at the end of the first week.

My life hasn´t just been Spanish have been up to all sorts other things. Been to Banos, cruisy little town full of nice cafes, hot springs (full of old pervs)...yuck! Went cycling down to see the waterfall there and you have to cycle through a pitch black tunnel, pretty scary, followed by a trip on a very rickety cable car, scarier. Scariest was finding out that the previous cable car had collapsed into the ravine a few weeks earlier. Love this place, absolutely no consideration for safety. Which is refreshing after all the disclaimers you had to sign in NZ and OZ which basically said if the guide killed you on purpose it was still your fault!

Cotopaxi was my first weekend trip, 2 days in Ecuador and I decide to walk up to 4850m, my head nearly split open like an over ripe melon and my eyes only just stayed in my head. And I wanted to go back and climb to the peak which is 5850m, must be something in the air thats affected my brain, or perhaps its actually the lack of air! Unfortunately I ran out of time in Ecuador...

Been to the equator line theme park, Mitad Del Mundo, pretty cool until you realise that they put it in the wrong place and the actual equator line is 150 yards to the right, in someone elses land, so they built an excellent museum there, far better than the empty pomp and artifice of the bigger site. Balanced an egg on a nail head, got a picture and certificate to prove it. Tried a blow gun, saw a shrunken head and all sorts, well worth a visit if you are ever here!

Visited the Galapagos Islands and was there for 9 days, did loads, went and saw the Giant Tortoises (infinitely sad and looking like they want to become extinct!), walked in 2km of underground lava tunnels by myself with a crappy torch, my mind started playing very dirty tricks on me! Got a last minute cruise, swam with Penguins, marine iguanas, sea lions, sharks, turtles, rays, the list goes on and on it was awesome.

Highlight of the Galapagos was I went diving and saw a school of at least 25 reef sharks feeding on the current, we had to hold onto the rocks to stay in one place and I cut my hand on a sharp piece of rock. The first thing that popped into my mind was that sharks can smell blood from a mile away, nearly had a heart attack thinking I would be so much human chum! Was ok though they don´t usually attack humans, now if it had been the hammer heads I wanted to see I may have been screwed as they have been known to take bites out of divers!

One of the highlights of my entire trip so far was a visit to a little village called Peguche near Otovalo. Not normally the most exciting of villages I would imagine but we were invited to their harvest festival (of sorts), no sitting in a church here with a cardboard box of old tin cans of food you don´t really want, oh no something far more exicing!

Got into the village after dark and absolutely nothing was happening, no lights, no people, needless to say expectations were not that high! About to get the taxi back to the hostel when we hear the strains of distant music...then around the corner out of the dark comes the whole village, marching down the street, dancing playing musical instruments and carrying a 20 foot long wooden structure which looked something like an aeroplane!

So as you would we join the column of people and make our way to the village square where they proceed to set up the large wooden structure on a very large wooden pole...an adventure in itself as its all just so wobbly and nearly collapses on the watching audience every couple of seconds, and there are no safety barriers here everyone just crowds around and tries to help. So we have a 20ft wooden structure precariously balanced on a 20ft wooden pole and I still don´t have a clue what is going on...and to be honest my attention is somewhat lacking due to the large amounts of warm blackberry wine and Aguadiente (local firewater) they are handing round to everyone.

By now a huge crowd has gathered, far more than could possibly live in the village and the show begins...The structure is covered in fireworks and is balanced in such a way that it can revolve on the pole so as the fireworks are lit its some poor guys task to turn it so that everyone can share the joy that unfolds. Turns out hes pretty much the safest person in the crowd...but I will get to that.

The fireworks gradually go off section by section so the whole event takes quite a while, its amazing as there are images and signs built into the display, a dancing woman, a man whipping a horse, which actually looks quite rude so everyone cant help but laugh. All the while everyone is dancing round the pole getting more and more drunk on the free booze. Smoke continues to belch, filling the whole square with that special firework smell and locals are setting off home made rockets in the crowd, some of which don´t have enough lifting power so skid through the crowd bouncing off people, buildings, everything.

The fireworks reach a crescendo as the top unfolds and the watching audience are showered with rockets and sparks. A rocket passes inches from my face and all I can do is laugh and think what an amazing night I am having!!! The party then moves onto to a covered courtyard where all the village woman bring out big bowls of warming soup and chicken as the alcohol continues to flow freely. Can´t believe the generosity and friendliness of these people who live in a small run down village in the countryside. We are treated with such kindness and really are made to feel like part of the village, and not the outsiders that we are.

Such an amazing night, not just for the audio visual treat but for how generous and friendly these people were to us and wanted nothing in return. Its a very special feeling to get anywhere in the world, but in South America where the majority of people treat you as a cash machine its an extraordinarily special feeling. THE best night of my entire trip so far!!!

So jump forward to today, the 30th March. I am sitting in a great hostal in Cusco (after an amazing 6 day bus journey from Quito to Cusco, at least 72 hours of which were spent sitting on buses which was a full adventure in itself!) and preparing mentally for the challenge ahead, as tomorrow I do the Inca Trail!

So thats it from me, sorry to bore you, actually I enjoyed writing it so anyone who didn´t like it is a philestine or welcome to write a review on why they didnt like it...

Anyway I have been asked to include some interesting animal facts again as they went down so well last time...

Frigate Birds, are possibly the least graceful birds I have ever seen, watching them try to move about on land is actually painful as they just end up caught up in trees all wings askew looking thouroughly humiliated (because of their very short legs apparently!). However once they are in the air they are just amazingly agile and watching their arial dog fights is a sight to behold...

Still on Frigate birds, they don´t have an oil gland so can´t waterproof their feathers, so they are (I´m really guessing here!) the only bird that hunts at sea that can´t actually go in the water!!

Tortugas...or tortoises, got down to a scary 16 animals left in the wild. So very close to extinction, its hard to comprehend seeing an animal that was so close to vanishing.

And finally masked Boobies look stupid! Silly big head, the waddle, just everything

Llamas have such beautiful eyelashes?!?!

My life has been relatively animal free but you can expect more amazing facts after I do a bit of junge exploration...